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Rival Turf
© 1992 Jaleco
Review by Jin-Iytoshi

There have been many "street fighting" games that have been released for game consoles for the past few years: Double Dragon, Streets of Rage, and Final Fight, just to name a few. Well, I decided to pick up a trip back to 1992, the year that the Super Nintendo was gaining popularity. I saw Rival Turf and decided to give it a try.


Storyline: 3
    The game takes place on the crime infested streets of Los Angeles, California. The main characters, Jack Flak and Oozie Nelson, have to take on the gang and its leader, Big Al, and restore peace to the city. Pretty average storyline, if you ask me, maybe a little lame and overdone.

Controls: 2
    Right off the bat, you'll notice that the game play is VERY similar to Final Fight. You have your jumping, your basic punching, and your special ability. Sounds simple, right? I'd like to say: "HECK NO!!!" The enemies are extremely cheap. You can be standing right in front of the guy, and STILL not hit him. The sad thing is: he can still hit YOU. Therefore, you die. The bosses are even worse. They actually do combos and drain your life points down to 0 (no Yu-Gi-Oh pun intended). Once again, you cannot counter attack successfully because of the many flaws in the collision development. How the heck can your attacks fly THROUGH your opponent?


Sound: 4
    Well, there are a couple of things that may give a gamer joy, if that much. The music was decent and some of it was worth listening to. However, you'll be so annoyed with the controls that you'll lose out on the joy of actually listening to it. The sound effects are really misplaced and are EXTREMELY repetitive. Some of the guys even sound like females. It makes you wonder.

Graphics: 4
    As far as graphics goes, they're your average, 1992 Super Nintendo, quality graphics. Unfortunately, there's nothing really outstanding about them.

Difficulty: 3
    Just like any other game, it starts out easy and gets harder. That also has been overdone. However, the A.I. of the enemies and bosses along with the cheapness of the game can really get you really pissed off.

Fun Factor: 3
    As far as I'm concerned, Rival Turf is one of those games that you play when you get really bored. I also think that it tried a little TOO hard to imitate Final Fight. For your sakes, just stick with your roots and play the original "street fighting" games.